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The Eye of the Heron
From multi-award-winning, literary legend Ursula K. Le Guin comes a speculative fiction classic, The Eye of the Heron.
In Victoria on a former prison colony, two exiled groups—the farmers of Shantih and the City dwellers—live in apparent harmony. All is not as it seems, however. While the peace-loving farmers labor endlessly to provide food for the City, the City Bosses rule the Shantih with an iron fist. When a group of farmers decide to form a new settlement further away, the Bosses retaliate by threatening to crush the "rebellion."
Luz understands what it means to have no choices. Her father is a Boss and he has ruled over her life with the same iron fist. Luz wonders what it might be like to make her own choices. To be free to choose her own destiny.
In Victoria on a former prison colony, two exiled groups—the farmers of Shantih and the City dwellers—live in apparent harmony. All is not as it seems, however. While the peace-loving farmers labor endlessly to provide food for the City, the City Bosses rule the Shantih with an iron fist. When a group of farmers decide to form a new settlement further away, the Bosses retaliate by threatening to crush the "rebellion."
Luz understands what it means to have no choices. Her father is a Boss and he has ruled over her life with the same iron fist. Luz wonders what it might be like to make her own choices. To be free to choose her own destiny.
186 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
124 people are currently reading
3060 people want to read
About the author
Ursula K. Le Guin
1,043 books30.1k followersUrsula K. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. She lived in Portland, Oregon.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 455 reviews
September 22, 2024
Le Guin her thoughtful writing, wholly unsentimental on human nature in both its capacity for good and evil, is brilliant as ever. Even in a colony of 12.000 on a pristine planet power and principles find themselves pitted against each other, leaving everyone seemingly worse of
You are right to say that violence solves nothing.
Only sometimes nothing is what people want.
Ursula K. Le Guin her writing is so timeless and still relevant today, I believe she would be my pick for the most under appreciated writer I know of, probably due to the dual stigma of science fiction/fantasy and being a woman writer. Which is a dreadful shame, her science fiction doesn't depend on gimmicks or even general technology at all, but dives in head first into human nature and what grand concepts like pacifism mean when faced with reality.
The 12.000 odd souls living in penal colony Victoria are mostly farmers and low tech manufacturers of iron tools. Still they find ways to oppress one another. In this case the farmers, 4.000 strong descendants of Canadian pacifists, are suppressed by 8.000 descendants of Brazilians that were deemed socially unfit decades before.
As more often in the writing of Le Guin, there is the danger of young, entitled, ambitious and regularly attractive athletic men. What she does well is to depict the allure of the comforts offered to the oppressors, and how hard it is to struggle free from this. Pacifism is hard, is a definite conclusion.
In the end, the outcomes of idealism and violence are equally bleak and terrible, and hope is fragile, yet existent. An under-appreciated novel that remains interesting and relevant.
Quotes:
Is it liberty we want or just safety?
What is freedom?
Force is the weapon of the weak.
The act of violence is the act of weakness
In the self important there is always room for more self importance
Armed men don’t sit down and talk
If there is no violence than there would be not anti violence
Freedom is won with sacrifice
They had died in the name of peace, but they also had killed in the name of peace
Don’t you have anything in your head than reason?
What was your long march for?
What made you think it was ever over?
There is nothing here that will hurt us except ourselves
You are right to say that violence solves nothing.
Only sometimes nothing is what people want.
Ursula K. Le Guin her writing is so timeless and still relevant today, I believe she would be my pick for the most under appreciated writer I know of, probably due to the dual stigma of science fiction/fantasy and being a woman writer. Which is a dreadful shame, her science fiction doesn't depend on gimmicks or even general technology at all, but dives in head first into human nature and what grand concepts like pacifism mean when faced with reality.
The 12.000 odd souls living in penal colony Victoria are mostly farmers and low tech manufacturers of iron tools. Still they find ways to oppress one another. In this case the farmers, 4.000 strong descendants of Canadian pacifists, are suppressed by 8.000 descendants of Brazilians that were deemed socially unfit decades before.
As more often in the writing of Le Guin, there is the danger of young, entitled, ambitious and regularly attractive athletic men. What she does well is to depict the allure of the comforts offered to the oppressors, and how hard it is to struggle free from this. Pacifism is hard, is a definite conclusion.
In the end, the outcomes of idealism and violence are equally bleak and terrible, and hope is fragile, yet existent. An under-appreciated novel that remains interesting and relevant.
Quotes:
Is it liberty we want or just safety?
What is freedom?
Force is the weapon of the weak.
The act of violence is the act of weakness
In the self important there is always room for more self importance
Armed men don’t sit down and talk
If there is no violence than there would be not anti violence
Freedom is won with sacrifice
They had died in the name of peace, but they also had killed in the name of peace
Don’t you have anything in your head than reason?
What was your long march for?
What made you think it was ever over?
There is nothing here that will hurt us except ourselves
April 5, 2009
This was just a tiny little novel, but just packed with stuff I love. Individual characters, compelling and interesting, but also embodying different political dogmas, the plot itself so packed with inherent symbolism that it shouldn't have been so light and natural. All coming together in a clean fast believable push through another world with the goal of freedom. It was beautiful.
March 15, 2021
Si hay una palabra que me viene a la mente con esta novela es: desarraigo. Es una constante en todo el libro. Desarraigo del planeta de origen, de la comunidad, de la familia, de las costumbres, de lo establecido...
Bajo una trama aparentemente sencilla, Le Guin explora el aspecto más ideológico del poder y las diferentes formas de entenderlo, a través de la confrontación de los dos grupos (con convicciones absolutamente opuestas) que habitan apenas una pequeña porción del planeta Victoria, al que fueron exiliados desde una Tierra futura, en naves con sólo destino de ida.
A pesar que han pasado muchos años desde la llegada del último grupo y casi la totalidad de los habitantes han nacido en este nuevo planeta, el conflicto se puede simplificar entre aferrarse a las costumbres e idearios de la Tierra o, por otra parte, adaptarse a un nuevo entorno y abrirse a la posibilidad de construir un futuro nuevo, con reglas de convivencia que van contra todo lo instituido por una tradición que ya no es la propia.
Por lo mismo, también es una novela sobre el crecimiento, que se ve reflejado tanto en sus personajes como en el camino que se abre ante la inmensidad de un mundo apenas conocido.
A pesar de ser una obra independiente de las series de la autora, es un libro redondo, completo, en sus apenas 250 páginas.
Reto #31 PopSugar 2018: Un libro mencionado en otro libro
Respecto del reto, es uno de los tantos libros de ciencia ficción y fantasía que se mencionan en la novela Entre extraños de Jo Walton. Si quieren conocer más les dejo este enlace: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Bajo una trama aparentemente sencilla, Le Guin explora el aspecto más ideológico del poder y las diferentes formas de entenderlo, a través de la confrontación de los dos grupos (con convicciones absolutamente opuestas) que habitan apenas una pequeña porción del planeta Victoria, al que fueron exiliados desde una Tierra futura, en naves con sólo destino de ida.
A pesar que han pasado muchos años desde la llegada del último grupo y casi la totalidad de los habitantes han nacido en este nuevo planeta, el conflicto se puede simplificar entre aferrarse a las costumbres e idearios de la Tierra o, por otra parte, adaptarse a un nuevo entorno y abrirse a la posibilidad de construir un futuro nuevo, con reglas de convivencia que van contra todo lo instituido por una tradición que ya no es la propia.
Por lo mismo, también es una novela sobre el crecimiento, que se ve reflejado tanto en sus personajes como en el camino que se abre ante la inmensidad de un mundo apenas conocido.
A pesar de ser una obra independiente de las series de la autora, es un libro redondo, completo, en sus apenas 250 páginas.
Reto #31 PopSugar 2018: Un libro mencionado en otro libro
Respecto del reto, es uno de los tantos libros de ciencia ficción y fantasía que se mencionan en la novela Entre extraños de Jo Walton. Si quieren conocer más les dejo este enlace: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
September 18, 2019
Ursula Le Guin manages to pack a lot into just-shy-of 180 pages in a story about two communities struggling to survive and co-exist on a penal colony. One community, the City, was settled by war criminals, rebels against an Earth government. In the century or so since their arrival on Victoria, they’ve recreated the hierarchical, patriarchal, exploitative society they’d known on Earth. Fifty years after their arrival, the People of the Peace fall out of the sky (figuratively). They, too, have been exiled by an Earth government unable to accommodate their philosophy of nonviolence, which is based on the principles of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. They establish the Town based on an egalitarian, nonexploitative lifestyle. [1]
The issue propelling the novel’s plot is the Town’s plan to establish another colony. The resources of the settled area are becoming overstressed. To avoid famine and other problems, a portion of the population has to be bled off. The City has always claimed hegemony over the Town, and tries to assert its control over the plan.
What follows is the story of how various characters deal with the problem. There is Lev, a young, charismatic Townsman. He doesn’t seek leadership but he’s someone to whom others naturally look to for advice and direction. He’s an ardent (one might say, “fanatical”) believer in the Town’s ideals. Vera is older and more pragmatic but no less a faithful adherent in the rightness of her people’s beliefs. Elia is another Townsman who represents a third expression of nonviolence, more willing to compromise in the interest of co-existence. On the other side is Boss Falco, the leader of the City. He’s not simply an unthinking thug, and one can argue that his fate is the most tragic of all. Herman Macmilan is the least satisfying character, a counterpart to Lev. He’s never much more than a brute who exhibits a lust for violence and domination. (Perhaps the reader shouldn’t be too harsh in her judgment; the City constantly rewards Herman’s worst impulses.) Luz Marina, Boss Falco’s daughter, is the pivotal character. She chafes under the City’s oppressions but sees no way out until Vera is detained and lodged in her father’s villa. She’s the “fish out of water” UKL uses to explain the People’s philosophy.
Another review here compares The Eye of the Heron to The Dispossessed in the sense that the former is a dress rehearsal for the latter’s fuller exploration of the themes of co-existence, gender, society, etc. that Le Guin brings up. I agree. The weakest aspect of Heron is its length. UKL has time to raise the questions but little chance to adequately explore them. Which is not to suggest the book isn’t worth reading. It is, and I would recommend it.
I mentioned at the beginning of this review that Le Guin achieves remarkable depth of setting, character and exposition despite the book’s length. An example of that that struck me particularly is something Luz says after a confrontation has ended in violence and the deaths of several characters. She brings up the chink in the People’s faith in the efficacy of nonviolence: “You see, that’s what’s wrong with your ideas, Southwind, you people. They’re all true, all right and true, violence gains nothing, killing wins nothing – only sometimes nothing is what people want. Death is what they want. And they get it” (p. 142). A bit later, Vera expresses the only conclusion one can reach: “No, it’s not easy” (p. 144)
I write this review only a few months since we lost Ursula Le Guin. If there’s a canon of speculative fiction – a list of must-read authors – then Le Guin deserves a spot on it (she deserves a spot on any must-read list of writers), and Heron, however imperfectly, is an example of why. Despite copious evidence, Le Guin never lost hope that we can choose to do, to be better.
[1] UKL doesn’t have space but she does suggest Victoria’s genesis from the points of view of City and Town. The former on pages 22-3 (of this edition); the latter on pages 144-9.
The issue propelling the novel’s plot is the Town’s plan to establish another colony. The resources of the settled area are becoming overstressed. To avoid famine and other problems, a portion of the population has to be bled off. The City has always claimed hegemony over the Town, and tries to assert its control over the plan.
What follows is the story of how various characters deal with the problem. There is Lev, a young, charismatic Townsman. He doesn’t seek leadership but he’s someone to whom others naturally look to for advice and direction. He’s an ardent (one might say, “fanatical”) believer in the Town’s ideals. Vera is older and more pragmatic but no less a faithful adherent in the rightness of her people’s beliefs. Elia is another Townsman who represents a third expression of nonviolence, more willing to compromise in the interest of co-existence. On the other side is Boss Falco, the leader of the City. He’s not simply an unthinking thug, and one can argue that his fate is the most tragic of all. Herman Macmilan is the least satisfying character, a counterpart to Lev. He’s never much more than a brute who exhibits a lust for violence and domination. (Perhaps the reader shouldn’t be too harsh in her judgment; the City constantly rewards Herman’s worst impulses.) Luz Marina, Boss Falco’s daughter, is the pivotal character. She chafes under the City’s oppressions but sees no way out until Vera is detained and lodged in her father’s villa. She’s the “fish out of water” UKL uses to explain the People’s philosophy.
Another review here compares The Eye of the Heron to The Dispossessed in the sense that the former is a dress rehearsal for the latter’s fuller exploration of the themes of co-existence, gender, society, etc. that Le Guin brings up. I agree. The weakest aspect of Heron is its length. UKL has time to raise the questions but little chance to adequately explore them. Which is not to suggest the book isn’t worth reading. It is, and I would recommend it.
I mentioned at the beginning of this review that Le Guin achieves remarkable depth of setting, character and exposition despite the book’s length. An example of that that struck me particularly is something Luz says after a confrontation has ended in violence and the deaths of several characters. She brings up the chink in the People’s faith in the efficacy of nonviolence: “You see, that’s what’s wrong with your ideas, Southwind, you people. They’re all true, all right and true, violence gains nothing, killing wins nothing – only sometimes nothing is what people want. Death is what they want. And they get it” (p. 142). A bit later, Vera expresses the only conclusion one can reach: “No, it’s not easy” (p. 144)
I write this review only a few months since we lost Ursula Le Guin. If there’s a canon of speculative fiction – a list of must-read authors – then Le Guin deserves a spot on it (she deserves a spot on any must-read list of writers), and Heron, however imperfectly, is an example of why. Despite copious evidence, Le Guin never lost hope that we can choose to do, to be better.
[1] UKL doesn’t have space but she does suggest Victoria’s genesis from the points of view of City and Town. The former on pages 22-3 (of this edition); the latter on pages 144-9.
December 24, 2023
3 Stars for The Eye of the Heron (audiobook) by Ursula K. LeGuin read by Christina Moore.
The world in this book seemed interesting but there wasn’t enough of it. The story just ended up being about resisting the authority.
The world in this book seemed interesting but there wasn’t enough of it. The story just ended up being about resisting the authority.
May 1, 2009
Ursula Le Guin's The Eye of the Heron looks like an easy, short book. My copy is quite slim, the writing is a reasonable size, and the prose is as polished as hers always is, and it's easy to read. There are some absolutely amazing quotes, that I loved to read just for the perspective she always brings to the discussion. These are the ones that struck me the most (in parts of them, description has been taken out to make them more universal).
a. "You know, if we sit in the back room, with babies or without babies, and leave all the rest of the world to the men, then of course the men will do everything and be everything. Why should they? They're only half the human race. It's not fair to leave them all the work to do. Not fair to them or us. Besides," and she smiled more broadly, "I like men very much, but sometimes... they're so stupid, so stuffed with theories... They go in straight lines only, and won't stop. It's dangerous to do that. It's dangerous to leave everything up to the men, you know. [...:] I get worried they'll go too fast and too straight and get us into a place we can't get out of, a trap. You see it seems to me that where men are weak and dangerous is in their vanity. A woman has a center, is a center. But a man isn't, he's a reaching out. So he reaches out and grabs things and piles them up around him and says, I'm this, I'm that, this is me, that's me, I'll prove that I'm me! And he can wreck a lot of things, trying to prove it."
b. "If you marry a man like that and live his life, then I agree. You may not really want to hurt people, but you will."
"That is hateful. Hateful! To say it that way. That I haven't any choice, that I have to hurt people, that it doesn't even matter what I want."
"Of course it matters, what you want."
"It doesn't. That's the whole point."
"It does. And that's the whole point. You choose. You choose whether or not to make choices."
c. "If I don't speak truth I can't seek truth."
d. "It takes courage to really be a woman, just as much as to be a man. It takes courage to really be married, and to bear children, and to bring them up."
What I also find interesting is Ursula Le Guin's sympathy and understanding of all her characters. It would be easy to dismiss "Boss Falco", not intentionally being unsympathetic to that side of the divide, but not feeling that he has anything valid to say and so just letting him be a cypher. He isn't, there are some bits of his characterisation which break my heart a little.
It's interesting that I found what would happen quite hard to predict. Not that it didn't make sense, but that one has certain expectations from a book like this: that the People of Peace will simply prevail right away, like because their way is right it is the only possibly outcome; that Lev and Luz will prevail and get together; that Boss Falco will be irredeemable... And it doesn't always happen the way you expect.
The worldbuilding in itself is lovely. I liked the "wotsits", and the ringtrees. It is also easy to just make other worlds other earths, and this doesn't happen in The Eye of the Heron.
This in no way covers all my feelings about this book. I think Ursula Le Guin has said some lovely things in it, and I may have to reread it. It isn't as easy as it would seem, either. Sometimes I had to put it down to think through what a certain part is trying to say. It's a good thing.
A warning, though, that this is not so much a novel in which things happen, as a novel in which things are thought. There are actions and consequences and all of that, but I don't think that is the most important thing.
a. "You know, if we sit in the back room, with babies or without babies, and leave all the rest of the world to the men, then of course the men will do everything and be everything. Why should they? They're only half the human race. It's not fair to leave them all the work to do. Not fair to them or us. Besides," and she smiled more broadly, "I like men very much, but sometimes... they're so stupid, so stuffed with theories... They go in straight lines only, and won't stop. It's dangerous to do that. It's dangerous to leave everything up to the men, you know. [...:] I get worried they'll go too fast and too straight and get us into a place we can't get out of, a trap. You see it seems to me that where men are weak and dangerous is in their vanity. A woman has a center, is a center. But a man isn't, he's a reaching out. So he reaches out and grabs things and piles them up around him and says, I'm this, I'm that, this is me, that's me, I'll prove that I'm me! And he can wreck a lot of things, trying to prove it."
b. "If you marry a man like that and live his life, then I agree. You may not really want to hurt people, but you will."
"That is hateful. Hateful! To say it that way. That I haven't any choice, that I have to hurt people, that it doesn't even matter what I want."
"Of course it matters, what you want."
"It doesn't. That's the whole point."
"It does. And that's the whole point. You choose. You choose whether or not to make choices."
c. "If I don't speak truth I can't seek truth."
d. "It takes courage to really be a woman, just as much as to be a man. It takes courage to really be married, and to bear children, and to bring them up."
What I also find interesting is Ursula Le Guin's sympathy and understanding of all her characters. It would be easy to dismiss "Boss Falco", not intentionally being unsympathetic to that side of the divide, but not feeling that he has anything valid to say and so just letting him be a cypher. He isn't, there are some bits of his characterisation which break my heart a little.
It's interesting that I found what would happen quite hard to predict. Not that it didn't make sense, but that one has certain expectations from a book like this: that the People of Peace will simply prevail right away, like because their way is right it is the only possibly outcome; that Lev and Luz will prevail and get together; that Boss Falco will be irredeemable... And it doesn't always happen the way you expect.
The worldbuilding in itself is lovely. I liked the "wotsits", and the ringtrees. It is also easy to just make other worlds other earths, and this doesn't happen in The Eye of the Heron.
This in no way covers all my feelings about this book. I think Ursula Le Guin has said some lovely things in it, and I may have to reread it. It isn't as easy as it would seem, either. Sometimes I had to put it down to think through what a certain part is trying to say. It's a good thing.
A warning, though, that this is not so much a novel in which things happen, as a novel in which things are thought. There are actions and consequences and all of that, but I don't think that is the most important thing.
December 20, 2017
I literally just bought this book, because it had the name Ursula K Le Guin on it. I didn't even read the synopsis before starting it.
I know you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but this book proves you shouldn't judge one by it's size either. It covered so much in such a small book. Literally less than 200 pages with fairly large lettering.
Gender roles are explored and discussed somewhat, but the real meat of the novel is the study on pacifism. I've read other books that attempted to study the subject, but I always felt the author was too obviously for or against the philosophy. This is not the case in this novel.
Ursula K Le Guin does exceptionally well contrasting an anarchistic society with an authoritarianism society as well.
The world building is also brilliant, but this is the case in every Ursula K Le Guin novel I've read. Character depth was also incredibly well done for such a short novel.
Ursula K Le Guin is just so brilliant that it physically hurts, and I'm most likely going to read everything she's ever written.
I know you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but this book proves you shouldn't judge one by it's size either. It covered so much in such a small book. Literally less than 200 pages with fairly large lettering.
Gender roles are explored and discussed somewhat, but the real meat of the novel is the study on pacifism. I've read other books that attempted to study the subject, but I always felt the author was too obviously for or against the philosophy. This is not the case in this novel.
Ursula K Le Guin does exceptionally well contrasting an anarchistic society with an authoritarianism society as well.
The world building is also brilliant, but this is the case in every Ursula K Le Guin novel I've read. Character depth was also incredibly well done for such a short novel.
Ursula K Le Guin is just so brilliant that it physically hurts, and I'm most likely going to read everything she's ever written.
August 25, 2025
They had learned that the act of violence is the act of weakness, and that the spirit’s strength lies in holding fast to the truth
Why not just pick up every book that Le Guin ever wrote? You’ll rarely be disappointed as I was not after reading this. Le Guin always has something to say about human nature and humanism and she does it with simplicity and over a clever setting. This book takes place on another planet first colonized by prisoners and then later by other explorers from Earth. This book is about their descendants and how one group seeks to subjugate while the other group seeks openness, expansion and honesty. One is closed and the other is open. It’s a story about abject tyranny and martyrs.
I loved this line about the fascist leader trying to goad protesters into being violent:
But, since they’re all words and no actions, they may have to be pushed, we may have to crack the whip to make them fight, we may have to drive them to rebellion, you understand?
We must anger them into defiance, but not frighten them so much that they’re’ afraid to act. Do you understand? Their defense is passivity and talk, talk, talk.
How many tyrants behind closed doors have had this same reasoning? It’s been happening for centuries.
Much more to say but I’ll leave it here. Great book with timeless and important themes written by a master.
Why not just pick up every book that Le Guin ever wrote? You’ll rarely be disappointed as I was not after reading this. Le Guin always has something to say about human nature and humanism and she does it with simplicity and over a clever setting. This book takes place on another planet first colonized by prisoners and then later by other explorers from Earth. This book is about their descendants and how one group seeks to subjugate while the other group seeks openness, expansion and honesty. One is closed and the other is open. It’s a story about abject tyranny and martyrs.
I loved this line about the fascist leader trying to goad protesters into being violent:
But, since they’re all words and no actions, they may have to be pushed, we may have to crack the whip to make them fight, we may have to drive them to rebellion, you understand?
We must anger them into defiance, but not frighten them so much that they’re’ afraid to act. Do you understand? Their defense is passivity and talk, talk, talk.
How many tyrants behind closed doors have had this same reasoning? It’s been happening for centuries.
Much more to say but I’ll leave it here. Great book with timeless and important themes written by a master.
June 23, 2016
Reading Ursula K Le Guin is like coming in from a very cold day to a snug house and eating a warm slice of cherry pie with a glass of milk. The Eye of the Heron was written in 1978, but nearly four decades later it is still not only intensely relevant but eerily prophetic. Le Guin's writing is wonderfully evocative-she is able to build an entire alien world with its' own ecology and society in less than one hundred and eighty pages. To borrow a word from another reviewer she writes with "clarity." She tells an interesting story with an economy of prose-two distinctly different sets of exiles with very different approaches to life are permanently marooned on what is tantamount to an extraterrestrial penal colony. The City dwellers essentially think of the Farmers as serfs rather than free men, and are itching to commit acts of repression and violence. The Farmers are the opposite: non-violent people who just want to start a new colony and do not recognize the assumed authority of City dwellers. Note that the labor of the Farmers is what allows the City dwellers to eat. Conflict ensues.
April 14, 2022
A clear-eyed story about the deep complications of possessing moral clarity.
May 5, 2015
Another insightful novella, packed with politics, human rights, gender and class discrimination, philosophy and very sensorial descriptions.
Quite a good and quick read.
Quite a good and quick read.
September 17, 2019
There was a moment early on in this novel when I was worried that the Leguin I love so dearly had checked out while writing The Eye of the Heron.
It was two moments at once, actually: Luz, the main character, began to feel like a Disney Princess, just as the Shantih Towners -- the "People of Peace" -- and their non-violent philosophy looked as thought it was going to end up in the realm of fantastical naiveté. But this is Leguin -- not some easily fooled adolescent or some money hungry crafter of drivel. The Eye of the Heron avoided the pitfalls I worried about and delivered something rather beautiful in its simplicity.
It is more novella than novel, but in that condensed space Leguin weaves in many threads from the rest of her great blanket of work. There is a thread of Omelas here, a hint of The Beginning Place there, some Dispossessed over here, a tiny bit of Planet of Exile over here, and others threads that feel familiar but can't quite place.
I come away from The Eye of the Heron not knowing exactly what Leguin was trying to tell me, but knowing full well what I found on the planet Mud.
And if Disney ever decided to make an impressive and important Princess movie, this would be the place to start -- even if that was never, in any way, Leguin's intention.
It was two moments at once, actually: Luz, the main character, began to feel like a Disney Princess, just as the Shantih Towners -- the "People of Peace" -- and their non-violent philosophy looked as thought it was going to end up in the realm of fantastical naiveté. But this is Leguin -- not some easily fooled adolescent or some money hungry crafter of drivel. The Eye of the Heron avoided the pitfalls I worried about and delivered something rather beautiful in its simplicity.
It is more novella than novel, but in that condensed space Leguin weaves in many threads from the rest of her great blanket of work. There is a thread of Omelas here, a hint of The Beginning Place there, some Dispossessed over here, a tiny bit of Planet of Exile over here, and others threads that feel familiar but can't quite place.
I come away from The Eye of the Heron not knowing exactly what Leguin was trying to tell me, but knowing full well what I found on the planet Mud.
And if Disney ever decided to make an impressive and important Princess movie, this would be the place to start -- even if that was never, in any way, Leguin's intention.
December 24, 2023
This is one of the weaker - if not the the weakest - LeGuin book that I've yet read.
Not to say that it was bad, just that I found myself skimming more than usual and just a little bored. About halfway through I knew that the way the book ended would seal it as either terrible or passable, as it looked like it was heading in one of two ways, both of which I found to be a little too simplistic. Thankfully, she didn't take either of those paths and so I wasn't quite disappointed...just a little bored.
The world had great potential out of the gate, but she didn't do much with it. The focus here was on the characters with a little on politics, gender roles and cultural baggage (?).
I wasn't sure what LeGuin's position on non-violent resistance was going into it, so I wasn't sure exactly where she was going. The initial MC is certainly foreshadowed to either fail or succeed spectacularly - each of which would have spoke to the two sides of that coin. Instead, she takes an ambling middle road, which is closer to how I feel about it, and made for a more emotionally and politically interesting story.
That said, the resolution was kinda "literary" in the sense that it left more things open than I'd like from a (rather short) book like this.
THREE STARS
Worth reading if you're a fan or just want something quick, but not awesome.
Note: There is a neat bit about her writing process on this book (that has a major spoiler) that puts things into a better context for me, but I have to agree with another bit on that wiki page - it's one of her "minor" works.
Not to say that it was bad, just that I found myself skimming more than usual and just a little bored. About halfway through I knew that the way the book ended would seal it as either terrible or passable, as it looked like it was heading in one of two ways, both of which I found to be a little too simplistic. Thankfully, she didn't take either of those paths and so I wasn't quite disappointed...just a little bored.
The world had great potential out of the gate, but she didn't do much with it. The focus here was on the characters with a little on politics, gender roles and cultural baggage (?).
I wasn't sure what LeGuin's position on non-violent resistance was going into it, so I wasn't sure exactly where she was going. The initial MC is certainly foreshadowed to either fail or succeed spectacularly - each of which would have spoke to the two sides of that coin. Instead, she takes an ambling middle road, which is closer to how I feel about it, and made for a more emotionally and politically interesting story.
That said, the resolution was kinda "literary" in the sense that it left more things open than I'd like from a (rather short) book like this.
THREE STARS
Worth reading if you're a fan or just want something quick, but not awesome.
Note: There is a neat bit about her writing process on this book (that has a major spoiler) that puts things into a better context for me, but I have to agree with another bit on that wiki page - it's one of her "minor" works.
July 21, 2011
Of the three Ursula K. Le Guin books I read in quick succession, this was my least favorite. I didn't particularly love any of them, although I did enjoy A Wizard of Earthsea. It was much more, shall we say, exciting than The Eye of the Heron.
It's not that it's an awful book. I don't quite know what went wrong, but whatever it was, it severely hampered my enjoyment. I would say that I was bored with this book, although it had its moments. I couldn't even tell you what bored me--the concept was interesting, and there were good themes at play. Something just fell flat for me. Not to mention that the ending seemed abrupt and unsatisfying.
Maybe part of it was the world they were living in. One of my favorite parts was when she described the odd behavior of the local trees--the ringtrees. They had an interesting, mystical air about them. However, it was never capitalized upon. The alien environment played less of a role than it should have, I think.
It's not that it's an awful book. I don't quite know what went wrong, but whatever it was, it severely hampered my enjoyment. I would say that I was bored with this book, although it had its moments. I couldn't even tell you what bored me--the concept was interesting, and there were good themes at play. Something just fell flat for me. Not to mention that the ending seemed abrupt and unsatisfying.
Maybe part of it was the world they were living in. One of my favorite parts was when she described the odd behavior of the local trees--the ringtrees. They had an interesting, mystical air about them. However, it was never capitalized upon. The alien environment played less of a role than it should have, I think.
August 3, 2023
‘Lev felt the strength of his friends and the whole community, supporting and upholding. It was as if he were not Lev alone, but Lev times a thousand—himself, but himself immensely increased, enlarged, a boundless self mingled with all the other selves, set free, as no man alone could ever be free.’ — Chapter 8.
Some years in the future the inhabitants of a planet circling another sun have legends about their predecessors’ time on an Earth where they were no longer wanted. In Victoria’s only city the population is largely descended from Hispanic criminals, shipped on a one-way trip to this designated prison colony to manage themselves as best they can. In this urban environment they have established a strict hierarcharchical system, in contrast to the other group sent to Victoria.
These others are descendants of pacifist anarchists, some of Earth’s People of Peace whose numbers had swollen in size during their Long March from Moskva to Lisboa and across the sea to Canamerica where, seen as a disturbing societal influence, certain key figures were also sent offworld as permanent exiles. Retaining their non-hierachical beliefs the enforced settlers have settled in a loose community centred on Shantih Town, where they farm the land near the City.
It’s just a matter of time before the two groups’ diametric philosophies – pacifist anarchism versus despotic oligarchy – threaten to come into open conflict; it only requires a flashpoint.
The novel opens with a reconnaissance group from Shantih Town returning after an expedition to discover terrain suitable for settling, elsewhere in the land mass and away from the city. But Lev and the rest of his people have thus aroused the anxieties of the city’s ‘Boss’ Luis Falco and its council, who see any hint of Shantih farmers moving away as a threat to their own comfortable urban life, tantamount to rebellion. Meanwhile, following their common philosophy the Shantih people seek open communication to avoid the threat of open conflict. The tension this creates forms much of the mainspring for the novel.
As with many narratives there is a catalyst that precipitates the main action, and in the case of The Eye of the Heron it is Luz, the privileged daughter of Boss Falco. She has her eyes opened as to how a certain Victorian faction plans to rule the Shantih Town dwellers by enslaving them, and in concert with Lev (with whom she once attended classes) and the other Shantih people she takes a stand against her father’s authority.
We get to know quite a few of the individuals in both communities, some to respect, empathise with or admire, others to be wary of, dislike or even fear. But it is on Lev and Luz – initially on either side of a notional barrier created by different philosophies, motivations, cultures – where our focus is concentrated, as they attempt to reach an understanding of what may benefit both communities and deepen insights into the other’s beliefs.
Le Guin always peoples her fictions with distinctive characters and sympathetic protagonists with whom the reader soon becomes familiar, but they’re usually embedded in novels of ideas. Thus, although not strictly a volume in her so-called Hainish Cycle, The Eye of the Heron shares many themes, motifs and obsessions with her Hainish novels. Circularity for example is one: it’s there in the title, referring to the observing orb of the alien heron-like creature which inhabits the pools dotting this part of the planet. The pools themselves when seen from above resemble lash-fringed eyes – the growth patterns of the native trees encircle ponds which their ecology has created.
Upon this not yet fully explored world, this globe called Victoria, the motif of the compass asserts itself: where on that dial does the needle point, where is true north? Luz draws a circle in the sand at her feet:
‘That was a world, or a self, or God, that circle, you could call it anything. Nothing else in the wilderness could think of a circle like that—she thought of the delicate gold ring around the compass glass. […] But any drop of water falling from a leaf into a pool or rain puddle could make a circle, a more perfect one, fleeing outward from the center . . .’ — Chapter 11
But, unlike the ripples expanding further outwards, the circle she’d drawn could not keep out her fear. Here, I feel, is the nub of the paradox that Le Guin is pondering in this novel: how a wall or other barrier surrounding an entity – be it an individual, a community or a system – functions as a form of protection but also as a prison. Outside the heron's haven will they fall prey to the falcon?
Luz and Lev each have to consider that paradox and how to respond to it. Those kinds of responses seem to involve journeys, journeys which the People of the Peace made back on Earth, those the inhabitants of the City and Shantih endured coming to their new home, the journeys indeed which bookend the novel. Maybe they’re the kind of journeys we all have to make, from wherever our beginning places happen to be.
March 4, 2024
A really pleasing novel that explores the dynamics of non-violent resistance on an isolated penal colony, so isolated that it's on another planet. The dynamics portrayed are wholly realistic, and the main characters are well-drawn if somewhat simplistic. It was nice to read a simple, well-told story that really goes full circle in the way it uses the titular image, the alien "heron's" eyes.
November 1, 2025
In my mind, this is a companion book to The Word for World is Forest. No, the books do not take place on the same world or with any of the same characters. But something about the flavor of the books, or maybe I read them for the first time one after the other, they are - in my mind - linked. And I feel like the stories are stronger together than apart. It is like a one-two punch which knocks you out while either on their own might only leave a bruise. Anyway, this is LeGuin asking difficult questions and coming up with imperfect answers. It is full of unlikeable characters. Villains sometimes do the right thing, even if it is for the wrong reason, while heroes often seem to do the wrong thing for the right reason. Life is messy.
January 20, 2017
I took a while to review this book because it was hard to rate. It's a solidly good book, but I get the feeling that it ended at an odd point.
As usual in Le Guin's work, although the story takes place in a futuristic sci-fi enviroment the focus is on people, their feelings, their beliefs, etc. I love this about her writing, can't get tired of it really.
This story takes place on a jail-planet where no one can leave, decades after the first colones/prisioners arrived. Due to spoilery motives, a movement of pacifists was also exiled to the planet and arrived after the first group of colones.
The social issues raised from this and the extremely opposite points of view of both communities are amazing. Characters have a hard time understanding the other's point of view and things really get out of control, to a point I hadn't read before in Le Guin's stories.
I do get the feeling that the story ended at a strange point - if it had ended before it would've been perfect, and slightly later it could've been more interesting since some characters could've done with a better shaped ending. Still, the story's development is flawless and the book probably got to me a bit more than usual because of a very accurate portrayal of latinamerican cultures. A very interesting read overall, with extra flavor for latinamerican readers.
As usual in Le Guin's work, although the story takes place in a futuristic sci-fi enviroment the focus is on people, their feelings, their beliefs, etc. I love this about her writing, can't get tired of it really.
This story takes place on a jail-planet where no one can leave, decades after the first colones/prisioners arrived. Due to spoilery motives, a movement of pacifists was also exiled to the planet and arrived after the first group of colones.
The social issues raised from this and the extremely opposite points of view of both communities are amazing. Characters have a hard time understanding the other's point of view and things really get out of control, to a point I hadn't read before in Le Guin's stories.
I do get the feeling that the story ended at a strange point - if it had ended before it would've been perfect, and slightly later it could've been more interesting since some characters could've done with a better shaped ending. Still, the story's development is flawless and the book probably got to me a bit more than usual because of a very accurate portrayal of latinamerican cultures. A very interesting read overall, with extra flavor for latinamerican readers.
January 30, 2022
This took me a long time to get through for some reason, and I wish that I read it with less breaks in the middle but it was really incredible and I think a new favorite. There’s so much packed into a liiiiitttle little book and it managed to feel both revelatory and simple at the same time. I picture myself coming back to this many times bcoz I think there’s a lot more to absorb from this, particularly on themes of revolution, non-violent protest, authoritarianism, class, gender and feminism, imprisonment, and different types of human relationship w nature. Whilst being under 200 pages !!!!!
I’ve only read three books by Ursula but I think they always feel special to me because I see so much of the northwest in the scenery of her books. It feels like hooooooome and a tender little hug for my heart
This was also a book that I was constantly asking people around me if they had a pen that I could borrow so I could underline something. So many good lines. “Her father ignored her question by repeating it, thus transforming a feminine expression of emotion into a masculine assessment of fact”. So good
I’ve only read three books by Ursula but I think they always feel special to me because I see so much of the northwest in the scenery of her books. It feels like hooooooome and a tender little hug for my heart
This was also a book that I was constantly asking people around me if they had a pen that I could borrow so I could underline something. So many good lines. “Her father ignored her question by repeating it, thus transforming a feminine expression of emotion into a masculine assessment of fact”. So good
Read
October 13, 2013The people of the City arrived on the planet Victoria by one-way spaceship, exiled from Earth, convicted criminals. Many years later the People of the Peace arrive in the last such spaceship, also exiled, but by choice. They form a town and call it Shantih, but the people of the City call it Shanty - deftly contrasting the views of the City folk and the townfolk. Over time the People of the Peace have become the peasants of a feudal society in microcosm but now confrontation is coming. The People of the Peace apply their principles of nonviolent non-co-operation. Where will the confrontation lead the colonists of Victoria to?
THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CURTAILED IN PROTEST AT GOODREADS' CENSORSHIP POLICY
See the complete review here:
http://arbieroo.booklikes.com/post/33...
THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CURTAILED IN PROTEST AT GOODREADS' CENSORSHIP POLICY
See the complete review here:
http://arbieroo.booklikes.com/post/33...
September 19, 2018
This little book is a comforting foray into Le Guin’s masterful land of imagination. Her writing is so clear, Like a running river. You feel for Luz even though she, as a character, starts out as the enemy. How Le Guin manages social distinctions in a brand new world is what amazes me most about this book. But mostly I love her voice, the attention to domesticity and elevation of that art, and the deft handling of human emotion.
July 23, 2018
😍❤ Meraviglia!!! Ursula non si smentisce mai!
August 29, 2024
It's fine. I mean, it's Ursula K LeGuin exploring some political ideas (which is really interesting) and getting to grips with writing a young female protagonist (which is mostly successful), but there's not a lot of depth to this one.
Full review on my podcast, SFBRP episode #548.
https://www.sfbrp.com/archives/2249
Luke tells Juliane about a minor Ursula K LeGuin novel he read weeks ago: The Eye of the Heron.
Full review on my podcast, SFBRP episode #548.
https://www.sfbrp.com/archives/2249
Luke tells Juliane about a minor Ursula K LeGuin novel he read weeks ago: The Eye of the Heron.
June 3, 2025
There’s some nice worldbuilding and interesting politics/gender dynamics (it seems it was her first female protagonist?), but the plot did very little for me.
May 26, 2021
A typical Le Guin novella. It grew on me. The symbolism is sometimes subtle, sometimes less so. It's a clear parallel to the English establishing a penal colony in Australia. This is not a story of action, more so of thoughts: most interestingly, it explores pacifism in a way we all recognize and love from her other works, and shows us the honour in non-violent resistance to oppression.
This had a lot of great quotes in it. It reminded me a bit of The Word for World is Forest, although that one felt much clumsier than this. They both aren't exactly subtle in their metaphors, but at least this one feels more natural.
This had a lot of great quotes in it. It reminded me a bit of The Word for World is Forest, although that one felt much clumsier than this. They both aren't exactly subtle in their metaphors, but at least this one feels more natural.
November 4, 2024
Good book.
Although it feels a bit redundant in the wake of Le Guin’s previous book, The Word for World is Forest. There’s a lot of overlapping themes about peace vs violence, systemic oppression, rejection of the other, and whatnot. The Eye of the Heron simply chooses to be more of a focused thesis on the effectiveness of protest as opposed to giving that kind of messaging through a story with wider scope and deeper characters like Word for World.
But I love the settings Le Guin dreams up and the lifelike cultures she writes into them. Always so warm and always feels so right.
Although it feels a bit redundant in the wake of Le Guin’s previous book, The Word for World is Forest. There’s a lot of overlapping themes about peace vs violence, systemic oppression, rejection of the other, and whatnot. The Eye of the Heron simply chooses to be more of a focused thesis on the effectiveness of protest as opposed to giving that kind of messaging through a story with wider scope and deeper characters like Word for World.
But I love the settings Le Guin dreams up and the lifelike cultures she writes into them. Always so warm and always feels so right.
February 8, 2018
Iznenadila me mala knjižica. Lijepo je naglašeno što to vrijedi a što ne vrijedi u vremenu koje nam je dano. Čak na dijelovima Ursula esejistički pristupa temi pa je tu njezin osobni stav malo prekrio radnju romana(ali odlično se uklopilo i ne smeta).
Ovo bi trebali pročitati svi oni koji misle da se bore za nešto ili protiv nečega; oni koji ne znaju udvagnuti kada se prestati boriti i što učiniti kada vlast, birokracija, ili bilo koja "acija" podigne zid pred nama. O teškoj temi slobode, pisati tako jasno, jednostavno i snažno, može samo ona.
Ovo bi trebali pročitati svi oni koji misle da se bore za nešto ili protiv nečega; oni koji ne znaju udvagnuti kada se prestati boriti i što učiniti kada vlast, birokracija, ili bilo koja "acija" podigne zid pred nama. O teškoj temi slobode, pisati tako jasno, jednostavno i snažno, može samo ona.
August 20, 2020
this book fucked me up & i need to discuss! the vast wilderness watching, the exile to an alien planet of a movement for peace on earth, the doom & liberation of nonviolence, the endless flight response of trying to get free, the power of colonial womanhood that betrays colonial patriarchy, the depths of human responsibility in community. the grace of this book in every detail. the swift inexorable current of the writing that sweeps you into the alien world & the inevitability of patterns of struggle.
March 3, 2017
Eerie and magical. There was something about the atmosphere throughout the entire book... It's hard to put into words, but oh boy did I enjoy it.
January 21, 2017
Inspiring view on nonviolent resistance- for the sake of conscience, and the answer being to adjust what you may classify as 'successful.'
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